Stolen suitcase held
family photographs

The owner appeals for their
safe return, no questions asked

---

By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

There were pictures of Verda Covey's daughter Donna when she was a little girl and a young woman.

There was a tracing of Donna's hand and the piece of paper on which she wrote her name for the first time.

There were Valentine's Day cards and letters Donna wrote to her mother, one addressed, "To my most wonderful sweetest mommy in the world."

"Just those kinds of precious things this sweet auntie had saved over the years," said Jill Walters, Covey's niece.

All those "precious things" were lost when someone broke into Walters' rental car at Kahala Mall on Thursday and stole a small suitcase.

Walters is afraid the thief, or thieves, will not realize or care about the items' emotional value and throw them away. She is asking for their return, no questions asked.

Up until about eight years ago Covey lived in Kahala. She moved to Mississippi to live with Walters and died last year at age 96. Donna died when she was 36 and her four children were young. One of her children also died young.

Walters came to Hawaii from Mississippi to fulfill Covey's wish to have her ashes scattered at Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki, where those of Donna and her granddaughter were spread. She did that last Wednesday.

Then she wanted to deliver the pictures and letters to another of Covey's granddaughters and a great grandson, who live here, but the mementos were stolen before she could do that.